Thursday, 28 March 2013

When a character is focused on a single objective, the flow of the
story is fairly easy to maintain. Detective Sherry Sharp is after the psycho
who killed her sister. She hears about another victim found downtown and she’s
in the car on her way, enraged and determined.

How you get Detective Sherry from one place to another, and how you
manage her emotions from one state to another will more or less take care of
itself.

If, however, you have various objectives and storylines to contend
with, things can get tricky.

Monday, 25 March 2013

For a character’s story to be interesting, they have to do interesting
things.

Activities and pastimes we enjoy depend on our personal preferences. A
writer’s passion can make a subject matter more accessible, but you need more
than that to engage a reader fully, regardless of their personal preferences.

The tale of Jack Jackson who went surfing for the weekend and had a
really fun time catching awesome waves is only going to be of interest to Jack
Jackson and people who are really, really into surfing. And who can also read.

Thursday, 21 March 2013

In the last post I took a look at making it clear what was behind a character’s
actions and suggested that in most cases it's preferable to just tell the
reader what's going on up front.

In this follow up I will attempt to clarify how and when to use
telling to get the most out of a scene. As with any technique, a lot still
depends on how well you execute it, but knowing the advantages and
disadvantages should help.

For the purposes of this, the example I’ll be using will be a man
breaking into a house.

There are three ways to do this in terms of character motivation.

1. I don’t tell you why he’s breaking into the house and either let
you figure it out for yourself or reveal his reasons after the fact.

2. I show you in a previous
scene why he needs to get into this house.

Monday, 11 March 2013

Not only is it difficult to know how much information to give readers
so they know what’s going on, it’s also tricky knowing when to give it to them.

There are many ways to do it right, but there are two very specific
ways to do it wrong.

One is signposting, where you say up front what’s about to happen, and
then it happens. You end up stealing your own thunder.

The other is burying the lead, where you put off mentioning the
elephant in the room, so that when you do eventually bring it up not only is
everyone taken by surprise, but now it appears to be a teleporting elephant.

Thursday, 7 March 2013

When you tell someone a story in person, you probably know the person
you’re talking to. You will at least have a rough idea of how familiar they are
with the people and places you’re referring to. And if you misjudge, they can
always ask you questions.

In fiction, it’s much harder to know exactly how much information a
reader needs or wants. And even if you did, it would be impossible to provide
since you’ll have more than one reader, and each will have different
requirements.

You can’t get the balance right, because there is no way to please
everyone.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get it wrong. You may not be able
to please all the people all the time, but you can certainly piss them all off.

Monday, 4 March 2013

Sometimes in life we get worried and worked up about something and it
turns out not to be as bad as we had feared. The terrible thing we were
convinced was about to happen doesn’t materialise. It’s good when it turns out
that way. In real life.

In a story, however, that kind of build up and release is not rewarding,
it’s disappointing.